Worried about extreme heat in NS schools?
Share your experiences through our anonymous survey! Scroll down to take more action.
We love our kids and want the best for them. As parents, their future is our priority.
But what happens when it’s too hot? You know, too hot to think. To move.
Too hot to learn. To write final exams.
Extreme heat events due to climate change are coming sooner and lasting longer in the school year, having serious health and cognitive impacts for our children and teens and the educators who support their learning. Without cooling and ventilations systems, shaded outdoor spaces or even windows that open, our kid’s health and learning are at risk.
We love our kids, and they deserve schools where they can learn, grow, and thrive - even as our climate changes. Let's take action together to make Nova Scotia schools safer, healthier, and more resilient.
Live outside of Nova Scotia but still worried about extreme heat in schools? Check out our Canada-wide information page here.
Climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme heat events across Nova Scotia. In May 2026, temperature records were shattered across the province, rising above 32 degrees in some areas. Once experienced in July or August, extreme heat is now happening increasingly earlier in the spring and later in the fall, having a direct impact on students, teachers, administrators and educational support staff.
There is no maximum indoor temperature in Canada, but physicians and researchers warn that excessive heat over 26 degrees indoors negatively impacts physical health, emotional well-being, cognitive functioning, concentration, learning outcomes, behaviour, and mental health. Many schools across Nova Scotia still lack adequate ventilation, cooling systems, shaded outdoor spaces, and climate-resilient infrastructure necessary to provide safe learning and working environments. Without guidance, parents, caregivers and teachers are left navigating extreme heat on their own. Schools face an increased burden to regulate classrooms, monitor student safety, respond to heat-related illness and dysregulation, and provide emotional and physical care to children and youth in classrooms that regularly reach unsafe and unhealthy temperatures.
Extreme heat also disproportionately impacts children with disabilities and chronic illness, marginalized and low-income families, including students without access to air conditioning, cooling centres, shaded green space, reliable transportation, or adequate housing conditions. Simply closing schools during heat events is not an equitable solution when many homes are equally unsafe.
Extreme heat is both an educational equity issue and an occupational health and safety issue affecting the working conditions of teachers and the health and learning conditions of students. Safe and accessible actions to adapt to climate change are urgent. Making schools - some of the most important public infrastructure in many rural communities - climate resilient cooling spaces should be prioritized for the health and safety of students, teachers and the wider community.
The Hot Schools, Cool Solutions campaign calls for:
- Clear and enforceable maximum indoor temperature thresholds for schools and school buses
- Equitable province-wide extreme heat protocols
- Air-conditioned cooling spaces in schools
- Modernized ventilation systems and improved indoor air quality standards
- Retrofitting schools with passive cooling measures such as shaded windows, cool roofs, and increased green space
- Forecast-triggered schedule adjustments during extreme heat events
- Long-term investments to ensure all public schools are climate-resilient, climate-controlled learning and working environments
- An ambitious provincial school climate action plan focused on health, safety, equity, and long-term adaptation and mitigation
Share your story!
- Parents, caregivers & students: Online survey
- Teachers: Anonymously share pictures of classroom thermometers & stories
Media
- Campaign Launch Press Release
- Radio interview on CBC Halifax Information Morning
Resources
- Info sheet: What to watch for during extreme heat & how to prepare (info graphic)
- Campaign Backgrounder
- A Collective Call to Action to Protect Children from Extreme Heat in Schools and Child Care Settings - For Our Kids together with Canadian Partnership for Children's Health and the Environment
- Bill 123-2026: An Ontario Private Member's Bill to Fight Extreme Heat in Schools
- Info for Teachers
Call to Action & Collaboration
If this campaign speaks to you and you want support to raise awareness and advocate for change, let us know! Email us at [email protected]
#HotSchoolsNS
#CoolSolutions
#BeatTheHeat
